Siempre Cantando
Flowers & Shrooms
(A Prayer)
-for Ernesto Cardenal
Yo ando siempre cantando
Make me a god of flowers & shrooms
Strong man. Story man
The asphalt’s alive with dead
Oil. I try to walk the edges
Keep distance to heart
And let the head dance
On its own, playing tricks
Joking with friends & strangers
I trust. Not the strangers we meet
In bluegreen bouncelight. TV ghosts
Musing on whose beer’s better
Or what car totem tie to buy
Cabezos Hablandos preguntan,
“Think their war’s as smart as ours?”
Make up’s the best mask for
Deception. A Tai Chi posture of peace
Can be a pounce in waiting
Some can pretend anything
Except what’s true, but
most of us can smell truth
What loves suddenly
May be rot taking root
Lipstick on a pig
Is that an argument against
Risk? Have you not been
Whirled, diced & consumed
By the unexpected razz-a-ma-tazz?
The turquoise blue waterfalls
Of Havasupai?
When I was young, I rode
My bike, whistling & making up
Songs, willy-nilly
Lyrics to charm the jacaranda
Tame the passionflower
Twined around my porch
Now it’s time to make love again
Not war. To celebrate being
So gratefully about-to-be-dead
Alive & living it up
So make me one. Quiero andar
Siempre cantando
Let me find the goddess within
This entangled multiverse
Of flowers & shrooms
Capt. Barefoot Broadside Union of Street Poets
Vincent St. John Local / Colorado Plateau / Aztlán
Kuksu Brigade (Ret.) / San Francisco
50011
Hi, Art,
ReplyDeleteYou commented on my punk rock article on BrooWaha some time ago. I rented a room from your mom on Elizabeth St. for six months in 1979. I recently wrote an ebook based on my experiences in San Francisco in 1979 - 1981 and I wrote more about Blanche. You can download it for $1.77 from any of the major online resellers. It's called No Regrets: Memoirs of a Punk. Your mom was a remarkable person.
Best wishes,
Tony